10 Leading Retailers Shuttering Stores Because Of The Downturn

DailyFinance:

Your next shopping trip may not be as convenient as it used to be. The second quarter earnings season brought news from several major retailers that they will be shutting down stores. Both Saks (SKS) and Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) said they were closing stores in several parts of the country. Meanwhile, other stores like the struggling Blockbuster video rental chain, continue to slash stores by the dozens. American Apparel (APP), which is close to defaulting on its loans, just may be next.

Read the whole story: DailyFinance

Comments

[LBA7895]

12:40 PM on 08/26/2010

Anybody who is spending $.05 on anything but essentials ought to have their head examined. By this time next year, you will need all the cash you can get your hands on, because the economy will be in free-fall.

[hobo62]

08:43 PM on 08/24/2010

Too bad we can't add:

1. Wally World
2. AT@T
3. Charter Communications

[userw014]

11:44 PM on 08/23/2010

I've been to Wal Mart - maybe 5 times. It's too far out of the way for me and created a gloom of depression over me every time I visited it.

Blockbuster - I tended to visit Hollywood Video (also collapsing.) I prefer the Public Library these days, as my AT&T DSL connection isn't really up to modern standards.

A&P - My mother took me there. Then I visited a chain they took over (Farmer Jacks) until those went out of business locally - about 10 years ago.

I might have visited "American Eagle" - once or twice - but not in the past 5 years. Insofar as it didn't leave me depressed and morose, it was better than Wal Mart, but clearly not as memorable.

I can't say I ever visited any of the rest.

[LBA7895]

12:41 PM on 08/26/2010

You should not patronize Wal Mart for two reasons:

1. the c r a p they sell is nothing you need

2. they treat their employees, suppliers and customers like d i r t

[Red Crow]

08:07 PM on 08/23/2010

"Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone."

— John Maynard Keynes

[ufopp]

03:26 PM on 08/23/2010

Blockbuster dying? Couldn't have happened to a nicer chain.

[faybeee]

11:50 AM on 08/23/2010

Nothing new here. It is called survival of the fittest. Happens not matter whose administration is in charge. Michelle Obama did not invent First Family travel. This is also not unique.

[J0E1]

11:34 AM on 08/23/2010

I have to laugh at blockbuster and their obnoxious prices. I went in to one the other day just for the heck of it and couldn't believe that they still charge so much for a rental. They still charge $5 to rent a new release for a week when the redbox at the McD's next door has $1/night for the same movie and you can bring it back to any other redbox. Who needs a movie for a week? Then of course there is netflix. Streaming shows and movies, more coming every week... Redbox will fill in that void where people refuse to pay monthly and blockbuster is going to die out completely.

[Cole 33]

11:01 AM on 08/23/2010

I've got a Blockbuster right around the corner so I still uses them, but I do their online dealy, my wife and I can still go into a store if we want movies, without paying those stupid prices. but I'm surprised they are still in business.

as soon as the majoirty of people can download new releases right to their tv, that'll be the end of brick and mortar video rentals

[deltalady]

10:04 AM on 08/23/2010

Blockbuster has been pricing itself out of the market for years. Even though they have a greater selection of older movies, their new movies are 4.99 each to rent, just as PPV on Direct TV has gone up. Instead of adjusting to their customers and getting customer loyalty in return, they raise their prices, and eliminate their customer. Can't wait for Blockbuster to start selling DVD! I get most of my older movies, Turner Classic, etc., used from Amazon.Com and I've never had a problem.

[SweetestTaboo]

09:57 AM on 08/23/2010

In a way this is just rewards for Blockbuster. How many mom and pop video stores did Blockbuster run out of business when they swooped into every neighborhood and built 5 or 6 stores within a 10 mile radius.

Now they find themselves on the business end of obsolescence due to VOD and NetFlix.

[born 2b different]

01:24 PM on 08/24/2010

Blockbuster didn't kill the mom and pops. It was the customers who used to patronize them and then moved onto Blockbuster. If the mom and pops were so good, why did all their customers abandon them?

[dcswampfox]

09:47 AM on 08/23/2010

Abercrombie was cool....12 years ago.

[zenlikejen]

02:57 PM on 08/23/2010

It will be nice to walk around the mall (on those rare occasions I'm forced to go...) and NOT have to smell that awful cologne they apparently have flowing in their ventilation ducts....I can't imagine the kids who work there have any sense of smell left!

[opposingviewsareopposed]

09:04 AM on 08/23/2010

This is George Bush's fault!!

Wait....oops, forgot for a second that he is not the President any longer.

But hey, at least America can pay for Michelle and kids to travel all over the world to shop with our tax dollars!!

[Reiziger]

01:53 PM on 08/23/2010

Yep, just like we paid for the Bush Twins to drink themselves stupid and tangle with local law enforcement on the taxpayer dime during their daddy's two terms - of which he spent over 500 days "cutting brush" in Crawford, TX. That doesn't include the time he spent gallivanting about in places other than TX.

[LameDuckHunting]

01:57 PM on 08/23/2010

He spent nearly one whole term at Camp David.................

[zenlikejen]

03:00 PM on 08/23/2010

Take this same conversation back a few more years....like 2004 and it went something like this...

"It's all Clinton's fault!"

Wait, where's Bush again? Oh, yeah...cutting brush in Texas.....*again*.....

[The Scientist]

08:46 AM on 08/23/2010

Many of these are victims of hubris, dying industries, and leases that made landlords rich but did little for the retailers.

Malls are dying around the country. The consumer has found them lacking.

OTOH, high-end retailers, like Coach, Ann Taylor, et al, are doing really well in this economy. Lending further credence to the idea that the rich are really getting richer -- as usual -- and they're spending.

Wife and I were recently at a large outlet center in NY (Woodbury Common) and the traffic -- and this was during the week -- was crazy busy! People could not hand over their cash or credit cards fast enough.

It's just interesting to see on the one hand, extraordinary numbers of vacant shops, juxtaposed against the sequential sales growth seen at retailers catering to the well-heeled.

[bankertobe]

08:02 AM on 08/23/2010

A&F is closing? That aint right! Check out my twitter profile pic you can see me PROUDLY wearing one of their products, and I bet it will see me clear through years of college wear and tear as I get my MBA and become a banker. A&F dont wanna close!

[hallowellboy]

08:02 AM on 08/23/2010

Traget and BestBuy are next to go. As well they should.

[Monk2001]

09:52 AM on 08/23/2010

Walmart SHOULD be the next to go. Target and Best Buy are shadey for their donations BUT This vitriol should be aimed at Walmart 1st and foremost.

[born 2b different]

01:25 PM on 08/24/2010

yeah right...